10 Cases of Fetal Abduction in the US

[WARNING: Some content on this list may disturb some readers] The phenomenon known as fetal abduction seems to defy all logic and challenges us to confront an unthinkable crime. In a publication titled “Newborn Kidnapping by Caesarean Section,” published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2002 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were 8 documented cases of fetal abduction in the USA. I have found two more since that study was published, bringing the total to ten. Most of the offenders have traits in common, such as faking a pregnancy up until the point where they would eventually be expected to give birth. Planning ahead for the inevitable end of their “pregnancy,” they seek out a woman or women who are near term and either befriend them or simply stalk them with the intent of stealing their baby straight from their womb. At least ten women have not only plotted and planned such a heinous act, but followed through and done it. In most cases, the baby survives and the mom is murdered. [JFrater: Due to the terrible nature of the crimes listed here, there are no images to match each item.]

In the first recorded instance of fetal abduction in the United States, Darci Pierce, 19, kidnapped eight-month pregnant Cindy Ray as she left a prenatal clinic at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Peirce eventually strangled Ray, killing her, and used a car key to remove her unborn child. The child survived the attack. Millie, the daughter of murdered Cindy Ray, who is well aware of the circumstances surrounding her entrance into the world, when asked what she thinks of Darci Peirce said, “I don’t think of Darci Pierce.”

In this case, three perpetrators identified as Jacqueline Williams, her boyfriend Fedell Caffey and her cousin Lavern Ward went to the apartment of Deborah Evans and shot her in the head. They then used a knife and scissors to remove her fetus. The three also killed two of Evans’ other children. Evans was the ex-girlfriend of one of her killers and actually had a child with him. The baby was eventually recovered alive.

Felicia Scott, 29, sliced open Carenthia Curry, 17, and stole her child before shooting the mother in the head and stuffing her body in a plastic garbage bag. In this case, the perpetrator and the victim were friends. They had plans to go out to dinner, when Scott abducted Curry. When Curry did not return home by the next day, the family reported her as missing. The abductor returned home in the early morning hours the next day and told her husband that she had had her baby and needed to see her doctor. Three months later, the victim mother’s body was located at the bottom of a 50-foot ravine, stuffed into a plastic garbage can sealed with duct tape. The victim’s abdomen had been sliced open and she had been shot repeatedly in the head. The baby girl survived.

Josephina Saldana contacted Margarita Flores and offered her family gifts of free baby furniture and a one-year supply of diapers. The woman went to the victim’s on the day of the abduction and told her that they needed to go to a warehouse to collect the gifts. The victim was eight months pregnant. When Flores did not return, the family called the police. The next day, Saldana showed up at a hospital with a dead fetus. She claimed she had given birth to the child in her car. She was subsequently arrested and found guilty. While in prison she hung herself.

Michelle Bica, 39, was faking a pregnancy when she casually met Teresa Andrews, 23, while the two were shopping. They exchanged home addresses, and Bica began stalking Andrews, who was pregnant. Bica eventually shot and killed Andrews and removed her fetus and buried her body in a shallow grave in her garage. There is haunting video of the first few days of the baby’s life as Michelle Bica shows off her “new baby” to family and friends. Bica shot herself as FBI agents showed up at her house to question her.

Effie Goodson, 37, shot Carolyn Simpson, 21, in the head, and then used a knife to cut out the woman’s 6-month-old fetus. Goodson was arrested after taking the dead fetus to a hospital, claiming to be the mother. In this case, the perpetrator, Effie Goodsen, was a patron of the casino where the victim mother was employed. Video cameras at the casino captured the image of the victim and the suspect departing the building. The abductor offered to give the victim a ride home and also provide her with some baby clothes. The victim’s husband reported her missing. The next day, Goodsen arrived at the hospital with a very small, unresponsive infant. Staff determined that the three month premature infant was deceased. An exam of the alleged mother proved that she had not recently delivered a baby and law enforcement was notified. Hunters found the victim’s body a few days later in a ditch about two miles from where the abductor used to live. The victim had been shot in the head and her abdomen had been cut open. Goodsen was found incompetent to stand trial.

Lisa Montgomery, 37, drove from her Kansas home to the house of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, where she strangled the 23-year-old woman before using a knife to cut out her unborn daughter. In this case, the perpetrator and victim mother were casual acquaintances. The victim mother was 8 months pregnant at the time of the incident. She and her husband bred rat terrier dogs and had a website. Montgomery had contacted the victim using a fake name and requested directions to the residence under the guise of buying a dog. The victim’s mother arrived at her daughter’s home about 1 hour later and found the victim lying in a pool of blood, the fetus cut from her womb. Premature but healthy, baby Victoria Jo Stinnett, was recovered in Melvern Kansas the day after her birth.

Tiffany Hall killed a pregnant woman, Jimella Tunstall, cut the fetus from her womb, drowned the pregnant woman’s three young children, ages 7, 2 and 1, and left them in the washing machine and dryer of the family’s apartment. The two women grew up together and attended the same schools. Hall frequently baby-sat Tunstall’s children. Hall knocked Tunstall unconscious and then cut the unborn baby from her womb with a pair of scissors. She left Tunstall’s body in a vacant lot. The baby did not survive the attack.

Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, 23, stabbed and killed Araceli Camacho Gomez, 27, in the chest multiple times and then cut out her fetus. Court documents said Gomez had her hands and feet bound with yarn. Gloves soaked in blood, a boxcutter, bloody paper towels, yarn, baby bottles and baby socks were among some of the items found in Sisouvanh Synhavong’s purse. The child survived and the killer tried to pass the baby off as her own when she called police for help. She was arrested when it became apparent she did not give birth to a child.

18-year-old Kia Johnson’s body was discovered in the apartment of Andrea Curry-Demus, 38. Johnson’s womb had been ripped out and Curry-Demus had taken the baby as her own. Curry-Demus had just been released from jail after serving 8 years for stabbing a woman in a plot to take her baby and then kidnapping a baby from a hospital. Johnson didn’t know about her past, but found herself victim to the woman’s plot to steal a baby. The baby survived.